brctl stands for Bridge Control. In Linux, this command is used to create and manipulate ethernet bridge.brctl is typically used when you have multiple ethernet networks on your servers, and if we want to combine them and present it as one logical network.
1. Create New Ethernet Bridge using addbr
Using brctl addbr, we can create a new ethernet bridge.
In the following example, we have created three ethernet bridges on this server: dev, stage and prod.
brctl addbr devbrctl addbr stage
brctl addbr prod
2. Display Available Ethernet Bridge using show
Using brctl show, we can view all available ethernet bridges on your server.
# brctl show
bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces
dev 8000.000000000000 no
prod 8000.000000000000 no
stage 8000.000000000000 no
3. Delete Existing Ethernet Bridge using delbr
Using brctl delbr, we can delete an existing ethernet bridge.
Here will show how to delete the “stage” instance of the ethernet bridge.
brctl delbr stage
From the above show command, we don’t see the “stage” ethernet bridge anymore.
# brctl show
bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces
dev 8000.000000000000 no
prod 8000.000000000000 no
4. Add an Interface to Existing Bridge
Using brctl addif, we can add an interface to an existing ethernet bridge.
brctl addif dev eth0
This will really make the eth0 as a port of of the bridge “dev”. So, all the frames that arrives on eth0 will be processed as if it is really arriving at the bridge. Also, when the frames are sent-out on “dev” bridge, it will use eth0. When multiple interfaces are part of “dev” bridge, then eth0 will be a potential candidate sent-out the outgoing frames from the bridge.
After adding the eth0 to “dev” bridge, the brctl show command will display the following.
bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces
dev 8000.0050568954bc no eth0
prod 8000.000000000000 no
From the above output, the last column “interfaces” how has eth0 for “dev” bridge.
Remember If something goes wrong while adding eth0 to the “dev” bridge, execute the following command from the console to delete the dev bridge.
# brctl delbr dev
Also, note that if you try to add the loopback interface to the bridge, you’ll get the following invalid argument command.# brctl addif dev lo
can’t add lo to bridge dev: Invalid argument
# brctl addif dev eth2
interface eth2 does not exist!
5. Add Multiple Interfaces to Existing Bridge
In the above example, we added only one ethernet device (eth0) to the bridge.
But, the whole idea of using a bridge is to add more interfaces to the bridge.
In the following example, we are adding both eth0 and eth1 to the bridge “dev”.
# brctl addif dev eth0 eth1
As you see from the following output, for the dev bridge we see two lines. In the last column “interfaces”, we see both eth0 and eth1 for “dev” ethernet bridge.
# brctl show
bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces
dev 8000.0050568954bc no eth0
eth1
prod 8000.000000000000 no
Basically, one network can be part of only one bridge. If not, we’ll get the following error message when trying to add it to another bridge.
# brctl addif prod eth1
device eth1 is already a member of a bridge; can't enslave it to bridge prod
6. Tracking MAC address of a Bridge
Using brctl showmacs, we can see all the learned MAC addresses of a bridge.
In the following example, as of now, the following are the two mac addresses that connected to the ethernet bridge “prod”. This data will keep changing depending on the current status of what is connected to the bridge.
# brctl showmacs prod
port no mac addr is local? ageing timer
1 00:50:56:89:54:bc yes 0.00
2 00:60:50:46:bc:40 no 0.00
7. Set Ageing Time for Mac Address on a Bridge
In the following example, we are setting the mac address ageing time to 120 seconds on “dev” ethernet bridge.
brctl setaging dev 120
In the above:
1 . dev is the name of the bridge where we are setting this value 120 is seconds
So, if a frame is not seen for “dev” bridge in 120 seconds, then “dev” bridge will delete the mac address from the forwarding database.
8. Setup Spanning Tree on Ethernet Bridge
Using brctl stp, we can setup spanning tree on ethernet bridge.But default, spanning tree is not enabled when we create a bridge.Spanning tree is helpful when you have multiple bridges on your network, and they can all collaborate to find the shortest path between two ethernets.
In the following example, we are turning on the spanning tree on “dev” ethernet bridge.
We can use either on or yes to enable spanning tree. So, both of the following command will do exactly the same.
brctl stp dev on
brctl stp dev yes
As you see from the following show output, the values in the “STP enabled” column for “dev” bridge is now “yes”.
# brctl show
bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces
dev 8000.000000000000 yes
prod 8000.000000000000 no
To turn off spanning tree on ethernet bridge, we need do the following:
# brctl stp dev off
# brctl show
bridge name bridge id STP enabled interfaces
dev 8000.000000000000 no
prod 8000.000000000000 no
9. Display STP Parameter Values of a Bridge
STP stands for Spanning Tree Protocol.
Once you’ve enabled stp on your bridge, you can use showstp as shown below to view all the stp parameter values of your bridge.
The following will display the stp parameter and its current value for “dev” bridge.
# brctl showstp dev
dev
bridge id 000a.000000000000
designated root 000a.000000000000
root port 0 path cost 0
max age 19.99 bridge max age 19.99
hello time 1.99 bridge hello time 1.99
forward delay 14.99 bridge forward delay 14.99
ageing time 299.95
hello timer 0.00 tcn timer 0.00
topology change timer 0.00 gc timer 0.00
hash elasticity 4 hash max 512
mc last member count 2 mc init query count 2
mc router 1 mc snooping 1
mc last member timer 0.99 mc membership timer 259.96
mc querier timer 254.96 mc query interval 124.98
mc response interval 9.99 mc init query interval 31.24
flags
10. Change Bridge Parameters Values
The spanning tree parameter default values for a specific bridge can be changed. You can also change other parameter values of the bridge that you created.
All of the following set commands mentioned in the table below starts with brctl.
brctl setageing dev 100
